


When Insomnia Leads to Songs About Dicks

by AvixNine



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: M/M, Not Beta'd, and the title is shitty, and trying too hard to write in character, arin overhears, arin's an artist and dan's in nsp, dan sings, i have no idea if this is in character or not, this is basically me writing a prompt idea i had
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-21 00:24:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11346183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvixNine/pseuds/AvixNine
Summary: Arin can't sleep, and ends up hearing someone singing 80's songs. Maybe not being able to sleep was a good thing.





	When Insomnia Leads to Songs About Dicks

**Author's Note:**

> My first time writing Egobang, so comments and critiques of my writing of Dan and Arin (and my writing in general) are totally welcome. I try my best to write in-character but I'm never sure how good a job I do of it.

Arin was lying on his bed, unable to sleep. It had been that way for a couple weeks now. His commissions were piling up, and while he was glad for the cash, more work meant more stress. Sure, maybe it didn’t always pay the bills easily, but Arin was glad he had a job he loved. Getting to make art and miniatures for a just-livable wage was better than making a comfortable salary but hating life. He didn’t think he would’ve been suited for a nine-to-five lifestyle, for the mundane days at an office he heard adults talk about as he was growing up. He was too imaginative and energetic, and just sitting and following a rulebook wasn’t in _his_ rulebook.

 

Arin sighed and figured he’d make the most of his stress-somnia and work on some commissions, so he pulled himself out of bed. He opened his window to get the stale air of his bedroom circulating. He would have gone to sit at his desk had he not been distracted by a voice. A voice that was _singing_. A voice that was singing _really well _. Arin pulled his desk chair next to the window and listened to the voice sing. It was a guy singing, and was that… was that A-ha’s _Take on Me_? Goddamn, Arin didn’t think he could enjoy that song as much as he was right now. __

__

__The singer finished the song and went on to sing a couple more 80’s hits, with Arin raptly listening the whole time. After he had finished a Def Leppard song – Arin was pretty sure it was _Love Bites_ , but he wasn’t an expert on 80’s music – it occurred to Arin that he wanted to find the source of the fantastic singing. The first thing that came to his mind was yelling to the voice from the window. It sounded like a good enough idea, but then he figured yelling from the balcony was an even better idea. So that’s what he did. _ _

__

__Arin scrambled through his apartment to the balcony. He was worried that by some chance the singer would decide now would be a good time to close his window, and Arin at least needed to see if the guy had a Soundcloud. He pulled open the door to the balcony and was greeted by the warm air of early Spring. He yelled just loud enough so he hoped the singer could hear, but not too loud to risk (another) noise complaint._ _

__

__“Yo! Who has the great voice and horrible music taste!” Arin yelled in what he hoped came across in a light-hearted manner. His hopes were confirmed when he heard a faint laughter coming from the general direction the singing had. A moment later, a tall figure appeared on the balcony to Arin’s right._ _

__

__“Thanks for the compliment, but I have _great_ taste in music, thank you very much,” the man said, a friendly smile on his face. He was tall and skinny, with a head of bushy, curly, brown hair. He was wearing a faded tour t-shirt for the band Rush and a pair of baggy, dark grey sweatpants. Arin couldn’t lie, he was pretty damn cute._ _

__

__“I don’t know, man, are the top hits of the 80’s _really_ the paragon of music?” Arin was surprised with how easy joking was with this stranger. It wasn’t like Arin was socially inept, but he leaned more toward introverted homebody than extroverted partier. Normally he had to know someone for a while before witty banter was as easy as everyday casualties. _ _

__

__The man scoffed sarcastically in reply. “Yeah, and you think they’re _not_?” He laughed before holding out his right hand. There was no way he and Arin could safely shake hands across the balconies, but Arin understood the gesture. “I’m Dan.”_ _

__

__Arin held out his hand too. “I'm Arin. Nice to meet you. But seriously, bro, are you going to do something with that voice? That shit could take you to, like, Madison Square Garden.” He wasn’t sure if that compliment was too much too soon, but Dan didn’t seem overly taken-aback by it. Arin noticed in the dim light coming from their apartments a soft blush on Dan’s cheeks from the compliment._ _

__

__“I don’t know if the stuff I do is really Madison Square Garden material,” Dan chuckled lightly._ _

__

__“So, you do make stuff?” Arin asked excitedly. “Can I hear some?”_ _

__

__“I mean, sure, I guess,” Dan said. “It’s just, kind of, like, stupid, I guess.”_ _

__

__“Dude, that’s even better.” Arin loved stupid shit, it made up like a solid 75% of his humour. “Mind if I come over?”_ _

__

__Dan smiled in response to Arin’s first comment and shrugged in reply to the second. “Yeah, but my place is a fucking mess, fair warning. I’m number 316.”_ _

__

__“Sweet, I’ll be right over.” Arin slipped back into his apartment. He grabbed his phone off his bedside table and put it in his pocket, then left his apartment. He didn’t care to put on shoes, since he doubted Dan would mind him coming over barefoot. He’d known the man for all of two minutes but he didn’t seem like the guy to be a stickler for manners. Arin’s apartment was number 314, so his apartment was right next to Dan’s. It would’ve been really awkward to yell across someone else’s balcony. He knocked on Dan’s door, and it was opened barely before his hand was back at his side._ _

__

__“Come on in,” Dan grinned as he held the door open. “Make yourself at home.” Arin now realized why Dan said the apartment was messy. Moving boxes were stacked in various corners of the room, out-of-the-way enough to make the place livable. Things that were unpacked but not yet put-away were on various surfaces, and there was a pizza box sitting on the kitchen counter._ _

__

__“Just moved in here?” Arin asked, sitting down on the couch, making sure not to sit on anything._ _

__

__“Yeah, I just moved here from Philly. The guy I make songs with lives over here, so I figured I’d move as well,” Dan explained as he grabbed a laptop from underneath a pile of blankets that were on a desk._ _

__

__“Ooh, a dynamic duo?” Arin asked._ _

__

__“In a sense,” Dan laughed. He sat down next to Arin and opened his laptop. As he typed in the password and opened a file folder titled “nsp,” he started to explain to Arin exactly what music he made. “So, when I said my music was stupid, I mean that my band is called Ninja Sex Party.”_ _

__

__Arin burst out laughing. “Dude! That’s the best fucking name for a band ever!” Arin managed to say through laughing. ”Oh my god, dude, I would so come see you at Madison Square Garden.”_ _

__

__Dan started laughing as well. “We basically write songs about stupid shit like sex and dinosaurs. I play a character named Danny Sexbang, and the other guy plays a character named Ninja Brian. His real name’s Brian.”_ _

__

__“Holy shit, how have I not heard about you guys,” Arin said. “I seriously need to hear this, there is no way your singing matched with dinosaurs and fucking can be a bad combo.”_ _

__

__“We’re just on YouTube, and iTunes, we haven’t made many songs yet, but I’ll play you what we’ve got so far.” Dan played Arin _No Reason Boner_ , _The Decision_ , and _I Just Want To (Dance)_. Arin found all of it absolutely hilarious, and was nearly in tears from laughing at it._ _

__

__“I _cannot_ wait to hear more, this is fucking art.” Arin smiled widely. “And where are the dinosaurs? I was told there would be dinosaurs.”_ _

__

__Dan laughed. “That’s _Dinosaur Laser Fight_ , it’s still a work in progress.”_ _

__

__“My god, man, this shit is awesome. Is it just a hobby or are you guys trying to make it a job?” Arin asked._ _

__

__“I’d love if this could be a full-time thing. I’ve wanted to be a musician since I was a kid. Obviously, this wasn’t the music I was thinking of, but I dunno, maybe there’s a big enough audience for this.”_ _

__

__“Aww, dude, that’s so cute! The wanting-to-make-music-as-a-kid thing. And there’s totally a market for parody and joke bands, look at fuckin’ Weird Al. You guys will totally make it”_ _

__

__“Thanks, dude. I hope we can do it too. Anyways, we’ve only talked about my music, what about you? What do you do?” Dan asked. He looked genuinely curious. Arin liked that._ _

__

__“I make digital art and little miniatures of like, video game characters and shit, for commission. It’s totally my dream job, I’m grateful to scrape a living off it.”_ _

__

__“That’s so cool! I can’t draw for shit, I’ve always thought people who can draw are like, super impressive.”_ _

__

__“I mean, anyone can draw, it’s just like learning an instrument. Sure, some people are prodigies and shit, but lots of people just put a fuck-ton of time into honing a skill. Like in a video game,” Arin realized he was on the verge of rambling a bit so he shut up. Sometimes he tended to go on tangents that could go from “Okay, I get what you’re saying,” to “Arin, what in the fuck are you talking about,” in, like, 5 seconds, and he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of Dan after knowing him for about half an hour._ _

__

__“I guess that’s a good point. I mean, you see drawing as something else sometimes, like, something that you can only be good at if you’re ‘talented,’” Dan put air quotes around “talented.” “But you’re right, it’s something you practice over and over. Like I did with singing.”_ _

__

__“You can become a master of anything if you do it enough. Just like how I’m a master of jackin’ it.” Dan burst into laughter at Arin’s joke, and Arin followed suit, pleased he could make Dan laugh with a shitty dick joke. “Normally I wouldn’t make dick jokes after knowing someone for less than an hour, but you just showed me a song about you getting boners, so I figured I wasn’t crossing any boundaries.” Dan laughed again at that._ _

__

__“Dude, stop, I’m gonna cry,” Dan said._ _

__

__“Sorry, Dan, but you can’t just turn this off,” Arin gestured to himself, grinning slyly._ _

__

__“Well you’re gonna have to, or I’m gonna have _reason_ boner.” Dan tentatively decided to make the “gay joke”. Arin didn’t seem like the guy to have a problem with it, but Dan wasn’t sure where he drew the line for people he had literally just met._ _

__

__Without skipping a beat, Arin replied with, “Fuck, I better crank it up to an eleven then.” This sent Dan into another small fit of laughing, and he was secretly thankful Arin took it in stride. The ease in which Arin made the joke showed that that really was his sense of humour, which Dan clearly didn’t have a problem with._ _

__

__“I’ll make you shut up, man, or else I’m die from lack of air.”_ _

__

__“Oh yeah? How’re ya’ gonna do that, then?” Arin raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. A sly grin still sat on his face as he watched Dan laugh, a feeling of satisfaction in his chest._ _

__

__Dan wasn’t completely sure how instinct took total control of his body for the few seconds it took him to say, “Like this,” then plant his lips on Arin’s. He stayed like that for another second before the logical side of his brain kicked back into gear and made him quickly pull away._ _

__

__To Arin it was a blurry few seconds of Dan kissing him, then pulling away before Arin could kiss back. Arin said the only thing that came to his mind._ _

__

__“You sure you should be writing songs about boning girls?” Whatever tension may have been building between them was instantly knocked down, and for once Arin was proud of his lack of a brain-to-mouth filter. Dan laughed, still feeling incredibly awkward about what he had done but at least happy that Arin wasn’t silent or screaming at him._ _

__

__“Dude, I’m sorry about that, I just-“ Dan was cut off by Arin’s hands reaching up to hold his face, pulling him forward and kissing him again._ _

__

__“I guess I’m not the only one who needs to shut up some times,” Arin muttered after he had pulled away seconds later. For the hundredth time that night, Dan laughed at one of Arin's bad jokes._ _

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, comments and critiques are appreciated! I'll probably be writing more Egobang soon, so stick around if that interests you.


End file.
